Famously, there was a scene cut from Office Space, the dark comedy abut office life in the mid-1990s, where after having his Porsche 911 towed from a handicap spot, the seemingly emotionless manager Bill Lumberg had a full-on raging melt down. Apparently, the outburst was so convincingly played by Gary Cole (a massively under-rated actor), that the cast and crew were “uncomfortable” watching it play out. Cole and director/writer Mike Judge (Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill) agreed to cut it because it undercut the rest of Lumberg’s scenes by humanizing him. The best villain don’t lose their temper in a fit of childish rage (Kylo Ren, for instance), but are superbly calm, confident, in control. Even when the chips are down and the hero has them boxed in, they keep their cool. 

Think of the best screen villains — they often fit this mould. Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Darth Vader in Star Wars, Michael Myers in Halloween, Anton Chigur in No Country for Old Men, Agent Smith in The Matrix all were the epitome of composed menace. While Myers and Vader had the added benefit of a mask to hide facial expressions, their physical actions were also unhurried and controlled. An exception might be the superbly unstable Stansfield from Leon or The Professional, again played by Gary Oldman with glacial calm that would flip to explosive outbursts that just as swiftly disappeared. This is the reason why the Terminators were so terrifying, that inhuman lack of emotion; it was the same with the cold logic of HA

L-9000 — there’s nothing there to empathize with, to negotiate with. I would suggest that one of the undersung villains in film history is Michael Fassbender’s David from Prometheus. Like the other mechanical menaces, he’s not a person, although his can emulate one. His emotional facsimile is, in some ways, even worse — he seems to have emotions, however subdued or nascent, but if you look at the character’s actions throughout the movie (and ignore Covenant) he’s still following the directives set down for him.

The ice-cold villain is a great foil for characters, especially the “face” — the charisma guy or gal that manipulated the mooks and henchmen with ease. Not beign able to get under someone’s skin tends to…well, get under your skin. It makes them seem like they have the upper hand, even when they don’t. You might even use that composure to do a “counterattack” on the characters, shaking them up.

What might this look like for a character? Using the speedy character creation of Outgunned Adventure, I put together Archibald “Nakuru” Steele. I envision him for the late 1920s — a young run-away who took to the sea, only to get conscripted into the British army in Africa to fight the Germans on the lakes along Kenya and Tanzania, he probably served in the Gallipoli campaign and possibly toward the end in France. He’s since returned to Africa as a big game guide and hunter.

Being pulled into the Great War in his mid-teens, he’s seen a lot of death and horrors. Hunting big game means keeping your wits and composure about you; animals can sense fear. Between hunts, he finds things to do with his time — if this were a Call of Chthulu game, he would most likely get drawn into the search for eldritch horrors, maybe he leads an expedition that finds the Hollow Earth, or he helps solve crimes in European capitals. Whatever the challenge, however, Steele brings a cold resolve, an implacable demeanor, and a steady mind that puts him in a position of leadership. He is the calm in the storm and can use that to steady his companions. He’s an attractive man, but ultimately, one meant to be alone, as the same emotional reserve eventually becomes emotional detachment that breaks relationships. But when you need him, he’s there.